Leo McKinstry

Leo McKinstry is a British journalist and author

No such thing as a happy new year for gloomy Left

THE start of the new year should be a moment for optimism, a chance to think of a brighter future. Yet in the realm of politics the Labour Party and its Left-wing allies cling to their grim narrative of despair.

Intent on creating a climate of misery Left-wingers paint Britain as a land scarred by mass poverty and penury. In his bleak New Year message Ed Miliband piled on the gloom, telling us that we face "the worst cost of living crisis in a generation" - a perennial theme of his ever since he became party leader.

Labour now seems addicted to pessimism. A quarter of a century ago the party was led by Jim Callaghan, universally known as Sunny Jim because of his cheery outlook.

Today we have Melancholy Ed spreading despondency wherever he goes.

His party has followed his example by wallowing in woe. "Over half a million people cannot afford food," claimed one piece of Labour propaganda just before Christmas as if Britain was a famine-ravaged, war-torn place like Sudan rather than one of the wealthiest nations with a growing economy and a generous welfare state.

If Labour MPs believe their own language of doom then why do they think more than 500,000 immigrants want to settle here every year?

Some of Miliband's frontbenchers are so consumed with despondency that they appear to want a ban on any expressions of bonhomie from Government ministers. When Treasury minister Danny Alexander dared to look cheerful during a visit to a food bank sour-faced Angela Eagle tweeted: "Why is Danny Alexander smiling? Is he proud that 350,000 people needed them this year?"

Jim Callaghan, in the 1970s, was nicknamed Sunny Jim for his more cheerful disposition [GETTY]

Relentless pessimism runs through Labour

The Left, which once believed in the capacity of our society to progress, is now gripped by emotional blackmail and fake pity. The promise of hope has been replaced by the promotion of helplessness. "Britain isn't eating," claimed one ridiculous pre-Christmas poster from pressure group Church Action On Poverty.

More than 13 million Britons are living in poverty, argues Oxfam, a figure that can be achieved only by adopting a definition of poverty so broad that it is meaningless.

In this world of gloom Leftwingers pretend that Britain is sliding back into a dark, Dickensian past. "Tory spending cuts send us back to the misery of the Victorian workhouse," proclaims the headline on an article by privately educated Labour MP Tristram Hunt, who then managed to get in a sneer about Prime Minister David Cameron's Eton education while wailing about "cold gruel" for the poor.

This relentless pessimism now runs through all the Left's policies. Britain is portrayed as so weak that we could not survive outside the smothering embrace of the EU. If we tried to regain our independence from Brussels rule, goes the Left-wing argument, we would sink into economic decline, mass unemployment and the collapse of trade.

The same contempt for the British people and our national identity can be seen in the Left's slavish devotion to mass immigration. Just like European integration, open borders are a counsel of unpatriotic despair. They represent an enfeebled belief that we can no longer make it on our own because our own workers are too lazy, too greedy, too unskilled, too stupid to maintain our economy, while our supposedly dull, narrow society cannot manage without the infusion of more exciting, more vibrant foreign cultures.

This is not only dispiriting, it is wrong-headed. The Labour Party has been peddling its message of doom ever since it lost the 2010 general election. Miliband and his allies warned that the coalition would be a complete disaster for Britain. The recession would deepen, debts would rise and dole queues would lengthen. Cuts would lead to rising crime and chaos in public services while welfare reform would shatter social cohesion.

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At the end of 2012 a group of Labour council leaders warned that the coalition's deficit reduction programme would have "dire consequences" and would "contribute to the break-up of society". In the same vein the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a Left-wing think tank, argued that "a perfect storm is brewing" because of the Government's "spiteful" approach to the economy.

How foolish those predictions now look. Far from shrinking our economy is growing faster than that of any major Western country. Unemployment has fallen rapidly as private enterprise revives.

Contrary to all Labour's predictions crime has dropped over the past three years and there hasn't been any sign of social unrest.

The Left said with illdisguised enthusiasm that the coalition's so-called bedroom tax - in reality the withdrawal of subsidies for spare rooms - would lead to mass demonstrations.

Some even said that it would be Cameron's poll tax. In reality the protests were a damp squib. Like the rest of the welfare reform programme this measure had overwhelming public support.

Britain can do better in 2014 but only if we cherish the talents of our great nation. Freedom and self-reliance are the routes to prosperity.

Ed Miliband and his party's negativity can only trap us in a downward spiral of dependency and despair.